Gunn,
Ronald Campbell (1808 - 1881)

Born at Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, on 4 April 1808, died at Newstead, near Launceston,
Tasmania, on 13 March 1881.

Arrived in Tasmania on 5 February 1830, and rapidly gained a series of government
posts. Later managed the estates of W.E.Lawrence and of Lady
Jane Franklin. Recruited by Robert Lawrence
to send plant specimens to William Hooker
at Kew. From 1832-1860 Gunn sent Hooker many hundreds of specimens from
most parts of Tasmania. He also made several visits to Victoria. Gunn was
a close associate of (and worked for) Governor Sir
John and Lady Franklin, and hosted botanists such as W.H.Harvey, J.D.Hooker
and Dumont d'Urville during their visits
to Hobart. Gunn gathered around him a keen group of local naturalists including
Mary Ballantine, William Breton, Richard Davies, John Lillie, John
Robertson, Charlotte Smith and John Smith. Collections made by these persons
and others (e.g. the convict servants James Lee and George Moran) were also
forwarded to the Hookers. He presented his collection to the Royal Society
of Tasmania in 1876 (?or 1878), and it was housed in the Tasmanian Museum.
Much of this collection was transferred to NSW for safekeeping in about 1904.
A set of duplicates and other material was subsequently returned to HO. Gunn's
collections are thus to be found in K (specimens sent to the Hookers), and
NSW (Gunn's main personal collection), with other large numbers in BM, CGE
(distributed by the Hookers to Lindley) and
H.O. Osborn (1952) noted 1000 Gunn specimens in OXF. Small numbers of specimens
are found elsewhere, including B, BRSL, C, CO, CN, F, FI, G, G-DC, GH, K,
KIEL, L, LE, M, MEL, MO, P, S, TCD, US, W and WAG.